Slavery

My Lords, we all appreciate the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, bringing up the question of slavery and all her examples. We have had quite a bit on this over the past 12 months and we will not let it go away. We are all committed to tackling it. Two weeks ago, 18 children aged between six and 13 from the Watoto children’s project in Kampala sat in the Gallery of your Lordship’s House. The Watoto project has a village of 1,500 children—it is hoped to increase that number to 10,000 children—who are orphans of AIDS victims. When I was chatting to them outside the Chamber, I asked what they would like to be. One child said that he would like to be a pilot, another said that he would like to be an accountant. One child said that she wanted to be a nurse and, even though Watoto is a non-conformist establishment, one said that she wanted to be a nun. They all had dreams. Children are allowed to dream, look forward and hope, but there are many obstacles to their hopes and dreams: poverty, disease and slavery. Even though we can celebrate the first move to abolish slavery 200 years ago next year and the efforts of William Wilberforce and his fellows, we are still faced with different forms of slavery. Some of the children from Kampala had been thrown on rubbish heaps when they were babies with their hands and feet tied together, and there was no hope. Our task—and in this House, we can do it more than any other place—is to bring hope and dreams and to try to remove the nightmares that haunt so many children in the world today. I could go on for a long time, but I am trying not to. We see bonded labour, trafficking, forced labour, children forced to work as soldiers or as domestic labourers or to take part in commercial sex work. It is estimated that there are 179 million children in the worst forms of child labour. There are girls and women in early or forced marriages who are sentenced to a life of servitude. Others are enslaved in chattel slavery. We must act according to the global demands. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "““No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms””." For the United Kingdom, that must mean an active and, I hope, leading part in tackling this problem. Can the Minister say why we still refusing to sign and ratify the Council of Europe convention against trafficking? The answer I get time and time again is that we must sort out the immigration question. We have had time to think that through, and yet we do not seem to have made any positive move to sign it. On 19 July, the Prime Minister said, "““we are determined to tackle human trafficking””.—[Official Report, Commons, 19/7/06; col. 316.]" However, he still refuses to sign. We are told that the police have most commendably set up the UK Human Trafficking Centre and that Operation Pentameter resulted in the rescue of 75 trafficked victims, but it is estimated that 4,000 women are brought into the UK each year, so 75 is commendable, but a mere drop in the ocean. What are we doing to be seen to be more determined? Why does the May 2000 optional protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child about the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography remain unsigned by the United Kingdom? This reluctance is not a good advertisement for us as a country. On 18 October, a Written Answer promised that Her Majesty’s Government, "““intend to publish the UK Action Plan on tackling human trafficking by the end of 2006””.—[Official Report, 18/10/06; col. WA 195.]" We are now near the end of 2006. Perhaps other people have heard of the action plan. Perhaps it has been published secretly or confidentially. Can the Minister tell us what is happening to that promise? If we have not published that action plan, it shows the country in an unfavourable way. Conventions and plans are only part of dealing with these problems. Many other local initiatives are helping. It is important that, by accepting the conventions in signing and ratifying them, we show the people who are suffering that we care, that we are active and, I hope, that we are leading in these matters. We might this afternoon have some favourable news regarding conventions and plans. I hope so. Otherwise the legacy of the Prime Minister and this Government will be of delay and reluctance, which will have condemned thousands of children and thousands of adults into a life of darkness, slavery and hopelessness.